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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Michael Cohen's Moment of Reckoning; Flynn Argues Against Prison Time; Oval Office Showdown; May Told of Confidence Vote Last Night; France Raises National Security Threat Level. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 12, 2018 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[04:00:11] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen set to be sentenced in just hours. What the president's former right-hand man faces today.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Former national security adviser Michael Flynn's attorneys revealing new details on what led Flynn to lie to FBI agents. Why they believe he shouldn't spend a day in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: An Oval Office temper tantrum. Why the president is taking all the blame for a potential shutdown ahead of next week's deadline. More from this heated exchange with Democratic leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I will contest that vote with everything I've got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Breaking news on Brexit. Conservative members of parliament triggering a vote of no confidence in Theresa May. And now, she's vowing to fight back. Real drama across the pond this morning.

BRIGGS: Sure is.

ROMANS: Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. We're going to go to Nic Robertson shortly to get the play by play, what's happening there.

BRIGGS: It is fascinating. Nine a.m. there in London, live there just ahead. I'm Dave Briggs. Wednesday, December 12th, it is 4:00 a.m. though in the East. That's where we start.

In a matter of hours, Michael Cohen will find out the price he must pay for years of loyalty to Donald Trump. At 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the president's former lawyer and fixer will be sentenced to New York Southern District. He's requesting no prison time in exchange for his Cooperation after pleading guilty to campaign finance and business crimes and lying to Congress.

ROMANS: But in a sentencing recommendation last week, Southern District prosecutors said Cohen's description of those efforts is overstated in some respects and incomplete in others. For these reasons, the office respectfully requests that the court impose a substantial term of imprisonment.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team will appear in court today. They are expected to tell the Judge Cohen has helped their investigation after meeting with him seven times. The president's former lawyer is facing up to four years in prison.

BRIGGS: President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn asking a judge to spare him from serving prison time because of his cooperation with the special counsel. In a memo released late last night, Flynn's legal team described his meeting in January of 2017 with FBI investigators. They say Peter Strzok and another agent visited Flynn in the West Wing after he first made false statements about his contact with Russians. Flynn did not have a lawyer with them. According to his attorneys, he should have been warned he could be prosecuted for making false statements.

ROMANS: They go on to claim the bureau decided the agents would not warn Flynn that it was a crime to lie during an FBI interview because they wanted him to be relaxed and they were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport. Special counsel Mueller has told the court Flynn provided substantial assistance to the investigation and should be spared from going to prison. The judge overseeing his sentencing makes that final call on Tuesday.

BRIGGS: Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort say they may not contest claims Manafort broke his plea deal by lying to prosecutors after agreeing to cooperate with the special counsel's Russia probe. Last week, Robert Mueller's team claimed Manafort lied about five major issues including his contact with administration officials.

In a court hearing Tuesday, a judge said the Mueller memo was too much of a summary and doesn't provide sufficient information to make factual findings. A hearing on the disputes over the plea agreement scheduled for January 25th.

ROMANS: President Trump claims he is not concerned about being impeached and in an interview with "Reuters", he defends the hush money payments made to two women made by Michael Cohen. The president claims they do not violate campaign finance laws.

And the president goes on to say: It's hard to impeach somebody who hasn't done anything wrong and who's created the greatest economy in the history of our country. I'm not concerned. No, I think that the people would revolt if that happened. The president was asked about all of his staffers who took meetings with Russians before and during the 2016 campaign. He replied, "The stuff you're talking about is peanut stuff."

BRIGGS: A government shutdown is looming just in time for Christmas. President Trump making the threat over funding for his border wall during an extraordinary televised clash with the top House and Senate Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: One thing I think we can agree on is we shouldn't shut down the government over a dispute. And you want to shut it down. You keep talking about it.

TRUMP: No, no. The last time, Chuck, you shut it down --

SCHUMER: No, no, no.

TRUMP: You know what I'll say -- yes. If we don't get what we want, one way or the other, through you, through military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government.

SCHUMER: OK. Fair enough. We disagree.

[04:05:00] TRUMP: I am proud --

SCHUMER: We disagree.

TRUMP: I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck, because the people of this country don't want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into our country. So I will take the mantle.

I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: If you watched Tuesday's spectacle in the Oval Office, you got a preview of what to expect in 2019 when Democrats take over the House. Listen to the president exchanging taunts and threats with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I also know that Nancy's in a situation where it's not easy for her to talk right now. And I understand that. And I fully understand that. We're going to have a good discussion, and we're going to see what happens.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Mr. President --

TRUMP: We have to have border security.

PELOSI: Mr. President, please don't characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as a leader of the House Democrats who just won a big victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Schumer is urging the president to accept the Senate's bipartisan agreement to spend $1.6 billion on border security. As he left the White House, the Senate minority leader told reporters if the president, quote, sticks to his position of a $5 billion wall, he will get now wall and will get a shutdown.

More now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and David, the echoes from that meeting inside the Oval Office here on Tuesday still reverberating across Washington. It was the first time in more than a year that President Trump met with the Democratic leaders. But of course so much has changed in that time, particularly the fact that Democrats won the House of Representatives.

But it was an extraordinary exchange in the Oval Office. The president decided to bring the cameras in to try and if not put Democrats on the spot, to try and frame the debate. Well, they did not blink at all, at least in that session.

There is a sense that Washington is moving closer to a shutdown than people thought earlier in the week.

Now, of course, we have seen this movie before. Of course, it's been averted before. But no question that the president doubling down on the border wall and saying that he would, in fact, own a shutdown.

Now, many Republicans aren't nearly as confident in owning that like he is. So, again, there is a week to go in this debate. We got a sense here at the White House and, indeed, across town here of what divided government will look like in Washington.

We saw the president challenged for the first time on his facts and his substance and his ideas inside that Oval Office. Something he has rarely experienced from Republicans and certainly members of his staff. So, perhaps a window, an ugly one, perhaps, of a civic lesson that was short of civility -- Dave and Christine.

BRIGGS: Indeed it was. Jeff Zeleny, thanks.

After the tense public exchange with President Trump in the Oval, Nancy Pelosi met privately with House Democrats and mocked the president's desire for border wall funding saying, quote, it's like a manhood thing for him. As if manhood could ever be associated with him.

Pelosi also revealing in their private session the president returned a familiar campaign promise that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. And the House Democratic leader suggested they gain the political upper hand with President Trump by taking personal responsibility for a potential government shutdown.

ROMANS: It was really a remarkable, remarkable turn of events yesterday.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: All right. A federal judge in California ordering porn star Stormy Daniels to pay nearly $300,000 in legal fees to President Trump's lawyers in connection with her failed defamation suit. They had asked for more than twice that amount. Nonetheless, Trump attorney Charles Harder calls it a total victory for the president.

The defamation suit was separate from the original lawsuit concerning a nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed with former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. The suit was brought after Trump accused Daniels of fabricating a story that a man threatened her in the parking lot if she didn't leave the president alone.

In a tweet he called it a total con job. Daniels claims they had an affair in 2006. The president denies it.

BRIGGS: The president claims he's having no trouble finding candidates for the White House chief of staff job. He tells "Reuters", quote, I have at least 10, 12 people that want it badly. I'm making a decision, great people. I could do it immediately. I'm in no rush. I have so many people I cannot interview them all.

The president called North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows a great guy and referred to form campaign adviser David Bossie as a friend but did not say which he might be leaning. According to adviser Kellyanne Conway, John Kelly will remain chief of staff through at least January 2nd to ensure a, quote, very peaceful and pragmatic transition.

ROMANS: All right. Got that? There's a lot going on.

BRIGGS: Quite a day in D.C.

ROMANS: It all leads back to the president of the United States.

OK. Things just got a whole lot worse for British Prime Minister Theresa May. The parliament triggering a no-confidence vote this morning. We're going to go live to London. Nic Robertson next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:14:00] ROMANS: All right. Breaking news. Overnight, the Brexit process in the U.K. plunging to chaos with conservative parliament members triggering a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May.

I want to go live now to London and bring in CNN's Nic Robertson.

And, Nic, where are we now on this? I mean, this has been such a painful process, this divorce from the E.U. And now, the politics for Theresa May get even more difficult.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the process is only going to get even more painful from here on out, as well, and in particular for the prime minister. That vote of no confidence will take place in about nine hours from now.

So later this evening British time, we should know the result, what Theresa May needs is a simple majority of all her conservative MPs. That will be 158 votes. She has had support tweeted from some of her senior cabinet colleagues. Again, this is a secret ballot. So who knows which way they'll vote.

But she is confident that she can win this.

[04:15:01] She says that she'll fight it with every ounce of strength that she has. This has been her tone all along. She knew that this leadership challenge was waiting to happen. Perhaps, it's caught everyone by surprise that it has come now. It has come at a moment when she's gone to European leaders to try to get their support to get reassurances on the most difficult part of the Brexit negotiations. And that is the border -- over the border with Northern Ireland, the so-called backstop.

She's been prime minister for 2.5 years almost. That could essentially be brought to an end this evening. But she says that she is willing and ready to continue to deliver the best Brexit for the British people. This is what she said --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAY: We are a party of the whole nation -- moderate, pragmatic, mainstream -- committed to reuniting our country and building a country that works for everyone. The agenda I set out in my first speech outside this front door, delivering the Brexit people voted for, building a country that works for everyone, I have devoted myself unsparingly to these tasks ever since I became prime minister, and I stand ready to finish the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And what she warned in her speech there was that any leadership contest will delay that chance of negotiations and increase the risk that Britain goes through with Brexit without making a deal potentially hugely damaging to the British economy.

ROMANS: Yes. I mean, one wonders if 2.5 years ago when the British people vote on the referendum to separate from the E.U. if they had any idea it would be this difficult. I mean, it's just been unbelievable.

All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

BRIGGS: Meanwhile, France has raised its national security threat level after a suspect opened fire near a Christmas market in the center of Strasbourg, killing three people, injuring 12 others. The motive for the attack still unclear at this hour.

CNN's Melissa Bell live in Strasbourg where a manhunt is now underway.

Melissa, good morning.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave.

It is more than 12 hours since that rampage began here in the center of Strasbourg. You can see the parts of the Christmas market and of the town where people were killed remain cordoned off this morning. There are several different locations because what we understand is that this gunman came through this street into the Christmas market, and that his rampage lasted for some time before he was chased away.

We also understand that at two points, there were confrontations with either the military or the police and that the man was wounded before managing to flee. That manhunt now underway. The last few minutes, we've had a visit from the interior minister. He's been visiting the scene of this terror attack.

We understand so far that five people have been detained as a part of what is an anti-terror investigation now underway. But the man himself, the gunman, known to police and wounded, remains at large 12 hours after this rampage began -- Dave.

BRIGGS: OK, Melissa bell. Just past 10:00 a.m. there in Paris. Thanks.

ROMANS: All right. A judge in Texas is facing backlash after a former fraternity president charged with sexually assaulting another student receives a plea bargain. Why he won't face any jail time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:22:49] BRIGGS: No prison time for a former Baylor University fraternity president indicted on four counts of sexual assault. Instead, a plea agreement will allow 24-year-old Jacob Walter Anderson to plead no contest to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint. That means if he successful completes three years of deferred probation and pays a $400 fine. His criminal record will be wiped clean, and he will not be registered as a sex offender.

In her impact statement, the victim said Anderson repeatedly raped and choked her until she passed out. The district attorney's office claims statements provided by the victim's attorney don't line up with her original statements given to police, witnesses, and a nurse.

ROMANS: Now there's scrutiny on the history of that judge and how he's treated similar cases in the past. So, this story is not over.

All right. Republicans in North Carolina concede a new election may be necessary in the state's ninth congressional district after the "Charlotte Observer" reports early voting results in Bladen County were tallied too soon and leaked before election day in violation of state rules.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALLAS WOODHOUSE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY: That is a fundamental unfairness in this election. We are pretty certain that happened, and if it is confirmed, a new election is appropriate. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: New this morning, CNN has obtained a sworn affidavit from a North Carolina man who claims a political operative named McCrae Dallas had over 800 absentee ballots in his possession prior to Election Day. In North Carolina, it is illegal for anyone to handle an absentee ballot except for the voter or voter's family member.

Republican Mark Harris was the narrow winner over Democrat Dan McCready on Election Day. But allegations of fraud surrounding absentee ballots in two counties led McCready to withdraw his concession. The decision ultimately rests with the bipartisan state board which is expected to hold a hearing in the coming days.

ROMANS: All right. Avowed neo-Nazi James Fields Jr. will likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Tuesday in the Charlottesville car attack. Fields rammed his vehicle into a crowd of counterprotesters last year at a white supremacist rally, killing Heather Heyer.

[04:25:03] The jury returns a verdict of life plus 419 years after just four hours of deliberations. That same jury convicted Fields last week of first-degree murder. A judge will decide whether to sign off on their recommended sentence. That hearing is in March.

BRIGGS: All right. In just a few hours, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen will learn his fate in a New York City courtroom.

Plus, a government shutdown looming after this incredible meeting between the president and top Democratic leaders.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, right-hand man, fixer, set to be sentenced in just hours. How much jail time the president's former associate could face.